Buffalo’s “High-Line“ Competition: Reimagining the DL&W Corridor
Image: courtesy- WNYLC
Sponsor: Western New York Land Conservancy Type: Open, International, one-stage, ideas Eligibility: Professionals, students, teams Fee: none Language: English Timetable: 11 January 2018 – Q&A period ends 10 February 2018 – Registration deadline 15 February 2018 – Submission deadline Jury: • Charles Davis II, Assistant Professor of Architectural History and Criticism, University at Buffalo • Ken Greenberg, Principal of Greenberg Consultants/author of Walking Home – the life and lessons of a city builder • Sara Heidinger, President of the Old First Ward Community Association/co-owner Undergrounds Coffee House & Roastery • Chris Reed, Founding Director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism/Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design • Robert Shibley, Professor and Dean of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning/UB Campus Architect/Senior Fellow at the UB Regional Institute • Janne Sirén, Director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery • Ana Traverso-Krejcarek, Manager of the High Line Network, at Friends of the High Line
Awards: First Place: $7,500 Second Place: $3,000 Third Place: $1,000
Community Choice Award: $3,000
Proposals should:
Align with the 2018 community vision plan’s guiding principles and strategies (available at wnylc.org/dlw and from the Supporting Materials and Data website);
Incorporate inspirational, innovative and inclusive urban design that is practical and achievable. An initial cost estimate for the construction of the trail and greenway is approximately $21 million;
Enhance natural wildlife habitats and use native plants; Consider connections and amenities;
Ensure connections to adjacent parks, trails and the waterfront as well as possible features and amenities within the context of the surrounding geography and land use;
Consider locations of trail and greenway entrances and access implications on existing communities and amenities, including both primary and secondary entrances to the corridor;
Explore the potential for additional recreational amenities adjacent to the corridor:
Incorporate comfort stations and respite areas along the corridor that provide, for example, restrooms and nursing stations.
Promote access for multiple users and uses:
Accommodate the potential for future consideration of light rail along the corridor, with particular attention to the western most section of the corridor between the DL&W terminal and Louisiana Street.
Strive for universal access.
Consider year-round uses and access, including winter uses in a cold-weather climate.
Design each area to fit the context of the surrounding neighborhoods and consider several of the key features in the four different sections of the corridor described on the following pages.
In these times when political emotions run high and gun violence is the norm, not the exception; and when emotions no longer are held in check, but encouraged by our leaders, minorities become easy targets for those who adhere to ideologies based primarily on exclusivity and hate.
The LGBT community has long been the target of various segments of our society; but the massacre that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a favorite hangout for gays, elevated this phenomenon to a new level. After an event that claimed the lives of 49 victims, injured 68 others, and left hundreds permanently traumatized, it should come as no surprise that a memorial to this tragedy has been front and center in the minds of the community ever since. Because the very nature of this event has drawn nationwide attention, the community wanted to get it right. So it was only logical that they would turn to a competition as the most viable vehicle for arriving at a solution for the design of a memorial, as well as a museum. For this, the onePULSE Foundation was formed, to memorialize this tragedy and “ensure that Pulse”s legacy of love, acceptance and hope will never be lost.”
Form and Dichroic Light Scott Hall at Carnegie Mellon University Michelle LaFoe and Isaac Campbell OFFICE 52 Architecture Forward by Cesar Pelli, FAIA Introduction by Michael J. Crosbie, FAIA Leete”s Island Books, Maine USA Hard cover; 96 pages in color ISBN 9780918172709
In his introduction to Form and Dichroic LIght, Michael Crosbie never mentions the term, “wild card,” to describe Office 52’s participation in the invited competition for the Carnegie Mellon Engineering Building. The four finalists, picked from a list of 17 firms, also included three household names: ZGF, Wilson, and BCJ (Bohlin Cywinski, Jackson). So what possible chance could a firm, which had just recently opened a small office in Portland, Oregon, have against a competition lineup of this magnitude? But as OFFICE 52 Principal, Isaac Campbell explained, as a small firm, “we were quite nimble,” and the $50,000 stipend the firms all received to produce a design could allow OFFICE 52 more time to undertake the research involved than might be the case with a larger office, where a cost controller is constantly focusing on the operation.
As part of a policy to relocate archives of local interest outside of major Bavarian cities, a competition was staged for the design of a new archive in Kitzingen, 12 miles from the provincial capital city of Würzburg, Germany. The competition was open to qualified teams in the EU, with 25 firms identified to take part in a competition. Since five firms were preinvited, 20 openings were available for the 79 applicants that vied for participation in the competition. In the end, 23 firms submitted designs for the final adjudication process.
In July 2019 the Vilnius Concert Hall competition jury began its deliberations to identify a suitable design for this major performing arts project. As one might have anticipated, two of thejurors on the seven member panel, Ole Gustavsen (Snohetta) and Andreas Cukrowicz (Nachbaur Architekten) had won high profile competitions for similar music center projects—in Oslo and Munich.The jury was confronted with a formidable task, as the competition, organized according to UIA regulations and anonymous in its format, had attracted 248 entries from around the world. For this one-stage competition, the organizers listed the following evaluation criteria, whereby the order of the criteria was not to reflect any priority:
Memorials to commemorate atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II have taken many forms. Holocaust museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. by Pei Cobb Freed or the Jewish Museum in Berlin by Daniel Libeskind, all endeavor to paint a broad picture, including narratives covering most of the major events and sites. Former concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Dachau, Theresienstadt and Buchenwald have been frequent tour destinations. In the case of Buchenwald, the local city of Weimar has placed pictures of “Witnesses” throughout the downtown area as a reminder of the Nazi legacy.
Detroit’s Dia Plaza competition is hardly unique in initiating a search for urbanistic solutions to a cultural cluster. Vienna, Berlin, Mesa, Fort Worth, Chicago’s Millennium Park and Paris’ Parc de la Villette are just a few examples of projects where the focus on spaces between buildings, and arriving at a connective plan to infuse new energy into the site, has been the primary goal of other projects. All of these have been faced with their own challenges: solutions for some have been relatively simple—Vienna’s Museum Quarter and Berlin’s Forum—while others such as Paris’ La Villette and Mesa’s Downtown Plaza represent a more challenging subject spatially. In the case of Detroit, the aim of the competition was clear: “The design competition centers around enhancing and enlivening the DIA’s exterior campus and aims to connect all the institutions with a beautiful series of settings that support all types of programming and public art.”
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